Our ageing population requires an increasing number of medications. Statistics have shown that many of these medications are administered incorrectly. Kerri Wright considers the essential knowledge and skills nurses need to safely care for their residents

Stress is an inherent and arguably essential aspect of the nurse's role, with ongoing challenges associated with providing care for patients and their families. However, the level of stress currently being experienced in health care exceeds the capacity of many nurses, resulting in ill health and burnout. This stress can undermine the care and compassion nurses are able to give, a vital concern in health care which was highlighted by the Francis inquiry. This article explores the factors that contribute to stress and the strategies that can be used to alleviate the stresses inherent in nursing.

The Eastern Region Public Health Observatory (Erpho) became part of Public Health England on April 1 2013. Its website provides population health data, analysis and interpretation to support healthcare professionals in commissioning, prioritising and improving health outcomes.

Older, frail residents in care home can have a variety of comorbidities that require several medications. It is the care home's duty to ensure that these are safely administered, recorded and managed, as Kerri Wright explains

The Get Self Help website provides cognitive behavioural resources to inform and support individuals who are experiencing mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety or anger. There is also a great deal of information for healthcare professionals.

This article explores the commonly held belief that nurses are to blame for the high rate of medication administration errors in health care. The article argues for a need to move away from a culture of blame and to consider changes to medicine and the increasing complexity of administration as potential reasons for error. Medicine administration should be viewed within the wider context of health care rather than as an isolated process in order to develop effective solutions to reduce medicine-related errors.

UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience The Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary research centre at University College London for the study of mental processes in the brain.

Foot care is a neglected area of nursing care, yet can have huge benefits for individual residents. This article describes the structure and function of the foot, common problems affecting the feet and how to give basic foot care to residents.

Kerri Wright explores the impact that diabetes can have on residents' quality of life and the care interventions that nursing and care staff can implement to support residents with diabetes and ultimately improve their wellbeing

The Brain Facts website is a treasure trove of information about neuroscience and the brain. It covers a range of diseases and disorders, as well as the science of ageing, and is relevant to practitioners and students in all branches of nursing and midwifery.

Receiving the wrong prescription or dose can have severe or even fatal consequences for residents. Kerri Wright discusses how staff can avoid making common mistakes

This article reports on a pilot study that examined the cognitive processes and strategies used by senior nurses to solve written drug calculation problems.Methodology: Verbal protocol methodology was used to gain and analyse data from eight senior nurses now working in the education setting. The data was analysed using verbal protocol analysis.Results: Nurses used a range of strategies to solve the problems, not just the nursing formula. The cognitive processes of the nurses showed a larger number of steps devoted to problem representation and only a few steps devoted to actually solving the problem.Conclusion: Nurse educators need to consider the importance of problem representation in solving drug calculations and in particular ensure that written questions are representative of clinical practice. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aims and Outcomes: This study explored the area of learning styles in relation to drug calculations. Student nurses' perceptions of how they learn drug calculation skills were investigated in order to inform future teaching and learning strategies.Methodology: A semi-structured questionnaire was given to 67 student nurses to explore their perceptions of teaching and learning strategies implemented during a 2nd year nursing module. The results were analysed using descriptive statistics and grounded theory.Results: From this analysis three main themes emerged; students being able to measure their skills and gain feedback about their progress; being able to learn in their 'own way' and being given opportunities for this to happen; and being focussed on the goal of being able to calculate drugs in the 'real world'. The implications of these findings are explored in relation to nurse education. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A good academic piece of work aims to locate itself within the available body of knowledge on the subject area. Knowledge can come from a range of different sources, each contributing to the body of knowledge on the subject. The final article in this three-part series discusses the importance of appraising and making sense of literature when considering the knowledge relating to a particular subject area. Guidelines and methods are described to help organize, collate and make sense of the knowledge obtained, so that a logical plan can be created to structure academic work. The academic requirements of different levels are then briefly explained to give guidance on how best to use the literature to support and inform discussions.

Potentially excellent nursing student candidates are being rejected because of numeracy and literacy tests devised by many universities.